Amazon US - Refunded Lost Package ($475) - Now Delivering Today

FINAL UPDATE: Thanks for the info from those who have been in the same situation - that's why I asked.

Nice email from Amazon telling me my order has been delivered. They're helpfully trying to sell me a NAS to put it in in that email. They've got some smart AI trying to sell things - pity they don't apply it to tracking orders and working out if they're delivering stuff that has been refunded or refunding stuff that is about to be delivered.

They've told me it's been refunded, and they've now told me it's been delivered. They've still got my credit card details, so they can charge me or they can get in touch and ask me to pay.

I'm going to sit tight for a few days and see if they take the initiative and get in touch, but I figure if they don't, that's a sign that they've built this sort of waste into their systems, and their choice is to screw their workers.

Am I OK with them choosing to screw their workers over utilising the tracking information that it turns out is out there? No, probably not. But I figure returning the HDDs is not going to make any difference to what they do anyway.

When I went digging this morning, I found a page https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/help/customer/display.html?node… that links to https://uktracking.asendia.com/tracking-pb.php for DPD (the carrier) that resolves the tracking number they give you that in turns links to http://eretail.amservices.net.au/ with a different tracking number that has tracking info showing a scan at LAX on the 4th of April and arrival scan on the 14th of April and a customs clearance scan on the 14th of April. I don't know if that data was live when they refunded me on the 16th, but I'm betting it was somewhere - even if it didn't show up in the main Amazon tracking page (it still doesn't). My very long point is that if they could be arsed integrating decent tracking info, they'd know that the package had passed through LAX on the 4th of April and cleared customs in AUS 10 days later and could have said to me on the chat "sit tight, it's on its way". But the person on the chat presumably saw the same info I did which was nothing since the 1st of April and figured "it's lost".

UPDATE UPDATE - Delivered. 49 say I get to hang on to the HDDs, 5 say they're going back in a satchel, and 11 say I'm off to prison. No decision yet. Too many Friday office beers.

UPDATE - Tracking says "Delivered - Left in a safe place" at 6:41pm, apparently. No such thing where I live, but we'll see. On my way home shortly.

To clarify - this was a purchase from Amazon US, where Amazon was the vendor (not a third party selling through Amazon) or another shop.

Ordered these (3x6Tb) https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/691104 on the 27th of March, expected on the 10th of April.
Later updated as due by 8pm on the 11th of April. At 9pm on the 11th got a notification in the Amazon app now due by 8pm on the 12th. At 9pm on the 1th got a notification now expected by the 14th, if they don't arrive by the 14th, you can request a refund. Waited until the 16th of April (Easter Saturday). At that stage, tracking showed shipped on the 30th of March, with the last update as left the carrier facility on the 1st of April, and there'd been no updates for a couple of weeks.

I got in touch via chat in the Amazon app on the 16th, was instantly offered a refund. Chose refund to original form of payment. Got an email saying I'd been refunded, and it showed up in my online banking yesterday as having been refunded on the 16th.

A few minutes ago the Amazon app pinged on my phone, telling me my order is out for delivery today. I'm now expecting to arrive home today to find an Amazon package waiting.

What is the protocol when they've already refunded you but they still deliver?

Poll Options expired

  • 142
    Keep the HDDs - Say Nothing
  • 45
    Contact Amazon - they'll say "Keep the HDDs"
  • 19
    Contact Amazon - they'll say "We'll send you a satchel"
  • 25
    Too Late - you've posted to OzB - the Feds are coming around now.

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Comments

  • +24

    The moral thing is to advise Amazon once delivered and they'll send you a returns label to send them back. Your call.

    • If Amazon accidentally sent you more than what you ordered, you don't need to return it, it is part of their policy

    • +2

      Perpetual victim.

    • +9

      What if OP is renting, but kicks a puppy on his way to work every morning?

      • No definitive answer for that one, but if they keep the money it's possible it might put them in a better mood, and as a result less likely to kick a puppy on the way to work the next day.

    • +6

      ☝️ here it is folks, a leftist who calls people stupid … turns out to have a thief mentality

    • Definitely one of the more ridiculous comments i've seen on here.

      And there have been some doozys in the past.

  • +1

    This happened to me with the 18tb deal from Black Friday. Contacted them and all they did was ask me to return and give me $20 credit. Heck, do whatever you want with it I'd say lol. On a good citizen type of thing, contact them and ask for some compensation. Mine was late 1 month for $20. YMMV

  • +16

    Jeff Bezos is literally the worldest rich man.. I doubt he cares.

    • +9

      Richest*

      • +7

        i really need to start proofreading my comments.

        • +7

          Just blame autocorrect, I do.

        • +3

          Shouldn't there be a space in "proof reading"? Asking for a friend…

        • +1

          Just proofing read them and you'll be fine, my friend 😁😁

    • +1

      How can you be sure he'll cop the loss and not pass the loss to the regular Joe who processed the item?

    • +4

      Musk has a higher net worth, for now anyway. Putin is apparently richer than both combined.

      • +2

        Doesn't really count if you syphon off public riches into your own pockets really.

        • Isn't that what bezos and musk do? Bezos with Amazon, and musk from retail investors.

          • @nigel deborah: That's money from willing people though. Not public money in the first place.

    • +1

      I'm not sure if it's true for all products, but Amazon is like eBay, the stock is owned by 3rd party sellers.

      Sellers can ship it in bulk to Amazon warehouse. So the sale can then be Fullfilled By Amazon or FBA

      Jeff or Amazons net worth is irrelevant as it's the seller who owns the stock who will carry the financial loss.

  • +4

    I'd say nothing and keep the drives. Jeff can afford it.

    • +2

      This. Just like Jeff could afford to pay his employees a liveable wage, but doesn't.

  • +15

    If its a small business I would get in touch to discuss options.
    for Amazon f*** it.

    • +6

      I was going to say this exact thing

      Similar thing happened to me a few years ago (sold by Amazon). I contacted them in case they wanted me to pay again (as I did want the item) but they told me to just keep it. I think their computer systems couldn't handle that scenario.

  • +4

    Amazon wont be missing them, keep them.

  • +2

    We're all guilty of this or something similar.

    • OK, reminds me of this classic monty python line…….How many of us can honestly say that at one time or another he hasn't set fire to some great public building. I know I have!

  • +2

    Is this a trick question thats been asked 239230948 times before?

    • +1

      hard to say, a search for amazon refund return delivery yielded about seventeen billion results, I don't spend all day scouring the OzB forums, but I'd guess at least once before

  • +16

    Definitely wait until the drives arrive, as they may not even be delivered.

    If they do, contact Amazon. Rorting the system isn't nice - expecting the system to work for you when the goods aren't delivered (as you did, requesting a refund) then not returning the goods or paying for them when they do arrive…

    The right thing to do is to contact Amazon and follow their directions, whether it be pay for it again, return via a satchel, or a freebie. The owner being cashed or not has nothing to do with it.

    • +2

      Elegant Giant is exactly right. The right thing to do does not change according to how rich the seller is. Do unto others like you would expect them to do unto you.
      I admit I would chase a refund to me harder than I would chase a payment from me. :0

  • How does this work in terms of who is going to be left short if the items are not delivered?

    • It's Amazon themselves (rather than a third party selling through Amazon) if they're not delivered.

      They've refunded me, so I've got my money back (but missed out on drives that were cheap, and are now back to normal price, and I still have a NAS with one failing drive and running out of space, so still need to buy drives). It's not a third party vendor.

      • Amazon shareholders more like. Bezos owns 11.1% of Amazon. So if keeping these hard drives costs Amazon's value $100 at the end of the day after insurance or whatever, then that will only cost Bezos $11.10, with the other $88.90 being taken from the value owned by other shareholders.

        Of course a single $475 order being scammed from Amazon won't affect the value of the shares at all, so it won't cost any shareholder anything. But publicly posting about scamming Amazon might encourage others to scam Amazon, which will have a greater effect overall. And then again if getting away with this scam helps OP become a lifelong loyal customer to Amazon, then it could positively affect the value of Amazon shares in the long run, making Bezos and other shareholders even richer in 30 years time.

        • +1

          If more people scam Amazon, they'll tighten up and be less generous with their return procedure. And/or freight insurance goes up, which drives up Amazon pricing.

  • Had something similar recently. I ordered some headphones (Large company, order ~$50 usd) a month ago, direct from the company website and was told I would receive tracking within 48 hours.

    Had received no notifications after 2 weeks, so I emailed for an update. Still no reply or updates for a week after that, so emailed them to cancel the order and started a PayPal dispute.

    Received a refund from PayPal last week, about a month after the original order.

    A package arrived from Amazon yesterday containing the headphones, despite me having no prior contact with Amazon. I don’t even know who to contact - the original supplier, Amazon or PayPal?

  • +6

    Why not just order another one, and message seller saying,

    Hey please dont ship it I already received one from last time.

    Happened with me sometimes,

    Payed on eBay and got refunded, item arrived told seller about it, and told him not to ship another one, consider it as payment for the last transaction.

    because i dont know how tough/challenging their life is, and I dont want to carry a burden on me that because of my reckless and immoral decision someone was in loss.

  • -3

    Definately keep and don't say anything.

  • +3

    fulfilled by amazon? keep it and don't say anything. amazon is not a nice company and, as you said, you would have lost out on the discounted drives even with the refund because the discount was no longer running. they can eat their losses.

    • -1

      Considering that Amazon makes most of their money off AWS, it's likely retail losses hardly amount to much anyway.

    • Teach your kids that

  • Posting this here, was your first mistake 😂.
    I will not hand back my badge damn it!

  • +1

    Ok OP, did it get delivered?

  • +2

    Contact the shop and tell them it's been delivered. Ask them if they can send a courier to collect it.

  • -4

    Ordered these (3x6Tb) https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/691104 on the 27th of March, expected on the 10th of April
    Later updated as due by 8pm on the 11th of April. At 9pm on the 11th got a notification in the Amazon app now due by 8pm on the 12th. At 9pm on the 1th got a notification now expected by the 14th, if they don't arrive by the 14th, you can request a refund. Waited until the 16th of April (Easter Saturday). At that stage, tracking showed shipped on the 30th of March, with the last update as left the carrier facility on the 1st of April, and there'd been no updates for a couple of weeks.

    Apparently a 12 days delay (for items being sent halfway across the world, in a post COVID era) is enough reason to scam a company

    • If you say so.

      They're the ones that said "it looks like it has been lost, we'll refund you". I accepted that offer.

      I sort of assume that they're smart enough to not deliver it being the biggest IT company in the world and all that, but thought I'd ask here what the usual deal is - I haven't actually bought that many things from Amazon, and this is the first one I've had the offer for a refund offered, and certainly the first one that then has turned up (presumably when I get home) after being refunded.

      It's not a scam unless and until I decide to not send it back, but since you say a 12 day delay is a good reason to scam them, I'll take your advice.

      That's why I asked here - to get good advice.

      Home soon - I'll report back to confirm if they have been delivered.

      • +6

        'the usual deal'?
        Your very first vote option "Keep the HDDs - Say Nothing"

        Interesting moral compass you have there. Shows you're already considering it and you just want confirmation from like minded people.

        • -2

          Yeah, Sherlock, of course I'm considering it. Wouldn't have asked the question if I wasn't.

          My moral compass is good enough that I'm not pretending it's a $5 item either - that's why I put the amount in the post title.

          I don't have Amazon prime or buy 10s or 100s of items from Amazon US or get items lost or refunded often, but I'm figuring that the OzB community does.

          Anyway, I'm sure the view from your high horse is pretty good from up there.

          • @BJReplay:

            • I haven't actually bought that many things from Amazon
            • the first one I've had the offer for a refund offered
            • I don't have Amazon prime or buy 10s or 100s of items
            • I don't … get items lost or refunded often
            • I'm figuring that the OzB community does.

            hmm the list of excuses and weaseling keeps growing

            • @payton: My first forum post and I've found out how to block trolls on OzB, so I've learned two things tonight.

              • +3

                @BJReplay: well if you decide to keep them I'm sure you'll enjoy looking at those HDDs on a daily basis, your very first "heist", the items you defrauded a company of.

                Let me recap some points for you

                • You're enjoying goods provided by a company that frequently makes them available to you at highly discounted prices, and fast delivery
                • Said company was generous enough to give you a goodwill refund in advance, counting on your honesty and customer satisfaction

                despite all that, you're still thinking of ripping them off?

                And I'm the bad guy somehow? Welcome to #2022 woke world

      • I sort of assume that they're smart enough to not deliver it being the biggest IT company in the world and all that,

        They're 4th biggest. The biggest tech company in the world is $AAPL.

  • +11

    If you still want them why not go back on chat to offer to pay for them. I did this with something that looked like it had got lost in the mail with another company. I asked for the refund and told them I would contact them if it ever got delivered. When it arrived I sent a message and redid the payment. They were appreciative of my honesty.

  • +2

    I put a similar HDD Amazon deal in my cart recently. Then I thought about the air miles, the care (not) with which packages are sometimes handled, my friendly local computer shop, and local returnability if needed. So I cancelled and bought local for a few dollars more. Avoided all that international transport crap. And am grateful for the free advice I get in my local shop.

    • +1

      I'm with you on this; I buy 99% of stuff here from local shops rather than Amazon for the same reason. These HDDs were $40 cheaper each ($155 vs $195), so this was one of the few times I pulled the trigger rather than emptying my cart.

  • +1

    Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. If you were Bozo what would you have him do unto you.

  • +3

    Similar scenarios have happened to me multiple times over the years when buying items sold by Amazon USA. Each time my item was more than 2 weeks overdue, tracking info had stopped appearing, item seemed lost in transit. I didn't want a refund, I wanted the item i had ordered.

    Each time I contacted Amazon (a human) and they told me they would resend the item at no cost to me and set it as express shipping. At the time I always asked "what if the original item arrives, do I need to send it back to Amazon?". Each time they told me "If you end up also receiving the original item then you can just keep it, we are sorry for the inconvenience we have caused you".

    Each time the original item did eventually arrive, sometimes 2 months after the due date and no tracking updates since it got 'lost'. Each item was in the price range of AU$100 - $400.

    So I either kept the duplicate item or sold it on eBay. I never tried to ask Amazon for a refund so I could send one of the item back and keep the other and thus get it for free. I felt that would be dishonest, whereas keeping 2 items and doing whatever I want with them was transparent and confirmed by Amazon.

    I guess it's just too expensive for them to assign people to spend hours trying to track down a package lost 'somewhere' between a city in the USA and Sydney across multiple locations and multiple companies involved in the shipment. Maybe there is also insurance so Amazon is covered for losses by other carriers?

    I also had a scenario for an item sold by Amazon AU where they sent me the wrong item. I ordered a box of 10 of something (quantity of 1 for something sold as a box of 10), but they sent me only 1 single item (1 of 10). Easy to prove as the weight and size of the box could not be for a box of 10. When i contacted them (a human) they apologised and said they would resend the correct box of 10. I asked what I should do with the single item, they said just keep it. The second delivery turns up, same thing happened, I only got 1 of 10. I call Amazon again, I tell them it seems they have the item incorrectly loaded into the bin at their warehouse and maybe they should check, they have singles instead of a box. They say and do the same and send me another 'box of 10'. Again I receive a single. I now have 3 single items. I ring them back again. As it was now annoying me I said i just want a refund. No problem, they refunded me. I asked what I should do with the 3 single items I had received, they told me just to keep them.
    Those items were approx $150 for a box of 10, and about $20 each if bought as singles. So i got about $60 for free there.

  • I didn't want a refund, I wanted the item i had ordered.

    If I'd been more savvy, I probably should have gone for this option, because I definitely wanted the HDDs - I knew they were $40 cheaper than usual (about 20% off) and as cheap as I'd seen them in a long time. As it turns out, I've got them.

    If I had, though, I would have probably ended up with 6 HDDs, Amazon's blessing to keep the three and sell them on eBay.

    I guess it's just too expensive for them to assign people to spend hours trying to track down a package lost 'somewhere' between a city in the USA and Sydney across multiple locations and multiple companies involved in the shipment.

    Agreed, though it does look like they've prioritised selling stuff over delivering it or tracking it - no real surprise there, and they've probably done the maths on the economics of this model, and it probably stacks up.

    The funny thing is that if it was easier to find the tracking info that is out there (without going down the rabbit holes of dodgy websites pretending to offer track any parcel services), I might have known it was in country before requesting the refund, and all this would have been moot.

    Best lesson is buy local wherever possible!

  • There was a post here were the person kept it and got banned

  • +1

    I got a free microwave like this, It was fulfilled by Amazon and didn't show up at the expected date (the Courier was "Couriers Please" so no surprise there) I contacted Amazon via webchat and was offered reship or refund. I needed a microwave so chose reship, the new on arrived 2 days later. Much to my surprise the original one showed up 3 weeks later, the box all beat to hell with a couple of holes in it. I contacted Amazon and they said to "Dispose of it" and they would call it good. My mother is very happy with her free microwave.

  • Reminds me of a time when an Amazon parcel was delivered to my place but it wasn't addressed to me. I contacted Amazon to pick it up as it was incorrectly delivered but they told me to keep the package. Turned out to be a pair of Airpods!

  • Was it packaged well? Most of the time amazon sends harddrives with shit packaging so chances are the drives are damaged.

    • Was it packaged well?

      Nope. Just a satchel with what feels like three boxes inside.

  • Amazon is one of the biggest companies in the world they ain't gonna notice a $475 loss….

  • +2

    I've always returned items

    ASOS refunded me $900, and 3 weeks later I got the package.
    This was early days and it was 9kg of clothing, they allowed me to keep it.

    Returns to the UK would of cost 5x.

    However I found a wallet on my driveway containing $1,100, and I returned it to the electrician.

    I guess it comes down to if you lose something, and you behave like this you can't be upset if someone doesn't return what belongs to you.

  • +3

    Return it as a token of good gesture. Amazon has been one of the best companies in terms of customer service/warranty/refunds - I’d hate to lose these if lots of customers take advantage of behaviour like this

    • +3

      From the comments here, if OP just contacts Amazon there is a high chance Amazon will let them keep it, or in worst scenario OP will get the product they paid for - nobody is worse off. But nah, OP wants to lie by omission to con $475 worth of products for free - the tiny risk of having to pay a fair (highly discounted) price for products is too much to bear for them.

      I'm going to sit tight for a few days and see if they take the initiative and get in touch, but I figure if they don't, that's a sign that they've built this sort of waste into their systems

      Oh I found $1000 in a wallet, I'm just going to say 'did anyone lose anything' a few times in an empty space … if I get no response then the owner must've been rich enough to let go of that $1000 to me

      /s

      • hurr durr they exploit workers so it's ok

        /willingly did business with Amazon all along despite knowing this, will continue to do so

        • All those losses they factor in, is why they pay low wages.

      • +1

        This is why I've lost faith with humanity, everyone is just up for themselves. It's sad really but its reality

  • I remember this once happened to me when an Amazon order was 1 month late and considered 'lost'. The customer service rep filling in the refund told me I can keep the item if by chance it does arrive (however this was a $40 item at the time. Not sure if they would do the same for something more expensive).
    I'd imagine policies like these ~somewhat work in their favour since it makes you re-consider putting orders through competition since you feel you're 110% covered on amazon in these scenarios (well…at least till they're closer to having a monopoly on ecommerce orders I suppose).

  • Actually, I would assume the business that the item was shipped from, or item belongs to will lose the money.

    Is it Amazon direct, or is it a business that ships through Amazon Prime?
    Amazon never loses, if the product was shipped belonging to a business that business will lose.
    I could imagine, potentially twice as the refund I assume would come out of the businesses account and then that business lost the product as well.

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